Dracula Movie Critique – Besson’s Love-Struck Reinterpretation of the Classic Horror Story is Absurd but Watchable

Perhaps interest is limited for a new version of Dracula from Luc Besson, the French maestro for polished extravagance. However, one must admit: his lavishly upholstered vampire romance boasts bold vision and flair – and in all its Hammer-y cheesiness, I’m not sure I wouldn’t prefer to it to Robert Eggers’s recent, solemnly classy version of Nosferatu. A few strange elements appear, like a particular moment that seems to depict a territorial boundary between France and Romania.

Waltz as a Humorously Exhausted Vampire-Hunting Priest

Christoph Waltz portrays a clever but beleaguered vampire-hunting priest – it’s surprising he never took on this character previously – who finds himself in Paris in 1889 to mark the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution. So does the malevolent vampire count, enacted by the seasoned horror actor Caleb Landry Jones speaking in a twisted regional dialect evoking Carell’s Gru character from the Despicable Me comedies. It’s a role that he too was born to take on.

The Story: A Chronicle of Longing

The story is this: the count has been restlessly roaming the world in torment over four centuries after his transformation into a vampire, a penalty for his irreligious grief over the death of his spouse Elisabeta (a first film part for Zoë Bleu, Rosanna Arquette’s child). Dracula has been searching, searching, searching for a female who could be the rebirth of his departed beloved. As ill fortune would have it, the chosen woman is revealed as Mina (again played by Bleu), the modest betrothed of Dracula’s feeble property handler, Jonathan Harker (Ewens Abid), who has recently been to the vampire’s estate to discuss his land assets and whose miniature portrait of the lovely Mina attracted Dracula’s gaze.

The Filmmaker’s Approach and Lighthearted Touch

Besson organizes Dracula’s flashback sequence of international journeys sporting extravagant attire confidently, and he is not above offering some comedy moments with a distinctly Mel Brooks flavour – for example Dracula’s ongoing failed efforts to end his own life post-Elisabeta’s demise, in addition to comical sequences that occur when Dracula sprays himself in a certain perfume during the 1700s in Florence, which causes him to be unavoidably attractive to females. Outlandish but entertaining.

Dracula is on digital platforms from 1 December and for physical purchase from December 22nd. It will be shown in Australian cinemas beginning on the fifth of February, 2026.